I have a home in Colorado (cold winters and warm summers)
which has propane heat and electric AC. The farm also has several oil and
natural gas wells.

The last owner piped the natural gas (petroleum engineer
work) to the home and re-jetted the furnace for natural gas or propane
when the well is shut in. Not the best way to go for safety but everyone
does it around here since the natural gas is FREE.

I was thinking of a second approach - a natural gas heat
pump/ air conditioning unit which sets AC style outside the house and uses
the heat exchanger in the existing duct work. This would be installed
next to the original system. This has several advantages such as free natural
gas and safety since well head gas will not enter the home. Also Air conditioning.
Can you suggest outdoor heat pump or heat pump furnace combos that work
in this climate? The original system can always help out if necessary. Craig

Greetings,I know many people including myself, who would love to
be in your situation. If you have natural gas available, then by all means
wear it out. Air to air heat pumps require electricity to operate.

When compared to the operating cost of natural gas, propane
or oil a heat pump will be more cost effective to operate than fossil fuels
in mild weather 35 degrees and above. When any fuel that you have to pay
for is compared to one that you don't, you can't beat free. For your situation
you have four ways to make cold.

1: Use a conventional air conditioner that is electrically
operated

2: Use a conventional air conditioner that has a belt
drive (automotive) compressor and is driven by a natural gas engine.

3: Use an absorption type air conditioner that is fired
by natural gas. Such as one made by Bryant, AB Electrolux, Norcold or Dometic
(formerly Arkla).Note: Absorption air conditioning still requires
electricity to operate the pumps and blowers.

4: Use a conventional air conditioner powered by an engine
driven generator that is fueled by natural gas. This is probably the cheapest
to operate but not the most cost-effective if you weigh the wear and tear
on the engine.

You may want to look at the PC8900 Perfect Climate Comfort
Center. This thermostat provides both furnace and humidifier control. The
comfort center takes the outdoor temperature reading and calculates the
dew point to help prevent humidity from accumulating on the windows. If
you would like some information sent to you on this product, please send
us your mailing address. Could you pass the following question on to your
home heating people: I've got a Honeywell thermostat for my furnace as
well as a Honeywell control for my furnaces (add-on) humidifier. All home
humidifier controls are set to a relative humidity based on the outside
temp. Why can't I find a control that has an outside thermostat and sets
it itself?? Why can't I find one unit that is both humidifier and furnace
control...?? Thanks,Art McEwen

ANSWER: Sounds like you found it Art. I haven't used that
piece of equipment so I can't comment on it. In the maritime Pacific Northwest
we don't have a lot of use for humidifiers although I do suggest to folks
that they add humidity to their home environment during the winter because
houses get too dry. I don't know how much money that equipment costs but
I could find out for anybody interested......... tom

Greetings;I believe that April Air has a control that will adjust
with outside temperature. If you live in a location where the low winter
temperature doesn't vary much from average. Then you can set your humidistat
to about 40%. As long as you don't get any condensation on windows and
walls you are probably Ok. But keep an eye out for dew.

While on the subject of humidifiers. I have found the
best humidifier in the world bar none. Is the Humidifier 707. This unit
mounts on the return duct. It works by sucking up the water, chewing it
up into a fog and blowing it into the return duct. All the crap in the
water gets trapped in the filter and gets thrown away with the filter.
Or gets washed out if you have a washable filter. There is no media
pad to mess with and the average life expectancy is 20+ years. This type
of humidifier works great with heat pumps and with large demand. Because
they don't need hot air to work they will continue to dump moisture into
the house whenever the fan is running.

This Question originally sent by the G&S Mechanicalheating question fill
out form.

This Question relates to how the fan works on a forced air furnace.

When the thermostat temp gets low enough for the heater to
come on, we can hear the burner ignite, but the fan does not
come on. This unit is also used for the A/C, so we know the blower works. What could be the problem?

Answer by Scott Meenen N3SJHIf this if a newer furnace it uses an electronic
timer to start the fan, if this is an older unit then it probably uses
a thermostat in the plenum ( the heat exchanger) to start the fan.Some furnaces have a combination of both. This thermostat is usually combined with the high
limit that cuts off the burner in case of over heating. Some older furnaces
may have the thermostatic fan control replaced with or backed up by a timer.If the fan works by placing the fan switch on the thermostat
in the fan on position (usually high speed) then you know that there is
power to the fan motor, however most furnaces have multi speed fans and
use the higher speeds for air-conditioning and the lower speeds for heating.
If the fan is belt driven then the fan only runs at one speed for heating
or cooling.Good luck Scott.

This furnace pilot question

was submitted on March 20th 2000

By Karen of Mt. Vernon Illinois.

My mobile home furnace won't stay lit. I had the pilot cleaned
Sept. 99. It was working fine and it just went out. The flame
goes out when I release the pilot knob. The flame acts like it may have
air in the line, but the burners on my cooking stove are not affected.
Do you have any ideas by what i've told you? Please send advice if it's something I can
do or do I call a repairman.

Sincerely, Karen Casteel

On most all standing pilot systems the pilot heats
a thermocouple (two dissimilar metals that generate electricity). This
electricity holds open the valve that keeps the pilot burning. When the pilot goes
out the thermocouple cools and shuts off the gas to the pilot and the
main valve. If you have a "milli-volt system" then instead
of a thermocouple you have a thermopile that generates about 1/2 a volt and
electrically operates the main valve as well as the pilot valve.

These thermocouples
do fail and will cause the valve not to hold in or they may not stay in.
They are also very cheap to replace. A thermopile is a little bit more
expensive and the way to tell if your system has one is that there will
not be a 24 volt transformer to open the gas valve and a
thermopile has wires and lugs on the wires, a thermocouple looks like a
piece of capillary tubing that has threads that screw into the gas valve. If you need to replace your milli-volt gas valve
I recommend that you install a conventional 24 volt gas valve that uses a transformer
and a conventional thermocouple (standard 24 volt valves are less
expensive and easier to find), unless of course your system doesn't have
a 120 volt blower.